The prior art is familiar with devices that steer an optical beam, e.g., a laser. Such devices are known to include, for example, electro-optical devices and opto-mechanical devices that manipulate mirrors and prisms.
Prior art optical beam steering devices are also known to exhibit certain problems. A major one of these problems is that current opto-mechanical beam steering devices are not sufficiently agile, compact and temporally responsive to the needs of current laser radar, targeting and communication applications. Another problem is that electro-optical devices do not provide sufficiently large field of regard without compromising optical efficiency.